Hair High (2007)

Delinquent Toons

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Twisted animator Bill Plympton's fourth feature film is also his least inspired, but it's still very much worth a look. Few modern animators share Plympton's imagination, bravery or sheer depravity. Hair High tells a Grease-like tale of a new kid, Spud (voiced by Eric Gilliland) who has a run-in with the most popular couple in school, Rod (voiced by Dermot Mulroney) and Cherri (voiced by Sarah Silverman). Spud and Cherri eventually fall in love and Rod gets his revenge on prom night. It doesn't end with a magical dance-floor kiss, though. It ends with hideous waterlogged zombies invading the prom. Plympton's previous films were attempts at the musical (The Tune), a horror/sex farce (I Married a Strange Person) and sci-fi (Mutant Aliens), and it appears the 50s high school movie is just too limited for him. Other voices include David and Keith Carradine, Martha Plimpton (who also co-produced), Tom Noonan and Ed Begley Jr.

It looks as if Plymptoons self-distributed this movie on DVD in 2010. It comes with some great extras, including a Plympton commentary track, Sarah Silverman's voiceover session, Ed Begley Jr.'s, voiceover session, a scene breakdown, footage from Plympton's desk webcam, a featurette on the "cockstume," footage from the premiere in Portland, an interview with Plympton, a trailer for Plympton's Idiots and Angels (2008), and a trailer for "Adventures in Plymptoons." Sadly, the picture has not been mastered 16:9.